Amid fear, non-local labourers flee away from south Kashmir

Srinagar, Oct 23: Day after a non-local labourer was killed in Kulgam, fear has gripped among the other non-local labourers who have started packing their backs from Kashmir especially in south Kashmir interiors.
In Wachi constituency, hundreds of non-locals had already left the villages after posters appeared asking non-locals to leave the valley.
“Most of my other fellows have left. I am just collecting money from the people we have worked with. In next three days I will also leave,” said Sabir Ahmed, a non-local.
Ahmed has been working in various villages of Wachi constituency from last nine years and is a known mason in the area.
“The situation has forced me to go back home. I don’t want to lose my life. I will work somewhere else either I will go to Mumbai or Delhi,” he told KNS.
However, the en masse fleeing of non-locals has hit the overall ongoing constructions works, apple orchard works and other modes of farming.
“We were undergoing construction work. They all labourers and masons have left. Even the electric fitting persons were non-locals. We have stopped work. The labourers left a day before. They told some threat posters have appeared in which they have been given ultimatum to leave the valley,” said Ghulam Rasool, a local.
Talking to KNS, IGP Kashmir Muneer Ahmed Khan said the non locals go to their home ahead of Diwali, so this is a routine process.
Asked there is fear among the non-locals after threat posters to non-locals by some “Mujahideen Kashmir” outfit, the IGP said there is no such outfit in Kashmir. “The outfit had given the deadline till October 25. There are still two days left. We are investigating it,” he said. (KNS)